Olympic star who vomited on live TV after being forced to swim in polluted Paris river reveals what actually happened

Canadian triathlete Tyler Mislawchuk has addressed why he believes he threw up ’10 times’ after the men’s triathlon event

Canadian triathlete Tyler Mislawchuk has spoken out after throwing up on live TV after swimming in the River Seine for the Olympics.

Yesterday (31 July), Mislawchuk took part in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games’ triathlon event – which consists of a 1.5km swim in the Seine, a 40km bike ride and a 10km run – in around 30°C (86°F) heat.

And just as he crossed the line, coming in at an impressive ninth place – with a time of 1:44:25 – the 29-year-old threw up while the cameras were still rolling.

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And not just once, but a whopping ’10 times’.

Canadian triathlete Tyler Mislawchuk violently throws up after completing almost a mile-long swim in the polluted river. (BBC/NBC)

It didn’t take long after seeing Mislawchuk throw up live on TV for speculation to grow as to whether he’d ended up quite so sick as a result of swimming in the Seine river.

The men’s triathlon was even postponed hours before it was set to take place after an inspection of the river’s water discovered pollution levels were too high and subsequently dangerous for competitors to swim in, despite French officials spending around $1.5 billion to improve its safety after a test in June showed unsafe levels of E.coli bacteria.

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Mislawchuk told cameras soon after finishing the race, as quoted by Marca: “Did I vomit once? No, I threw up 10 times… The last four kilometers were deadly and I started feeling sick and very hot.”

And the athlete’s since further opened up about why he ended up in such a sickly condition.

The triathlon saw athletes take to the River Seine. ( Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Mislawchuk told the Canadian Press he took part in the Olympic race after coming ‘back from an Achilles tear’.

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“Which sometimes athletes never come back from and at times it felt like maybe I’ll never come back,” he continued. “So, to be standing on the start line, healthy and fit was a win in itself and so I just got told before the race, ‘Go out there and play and just enjoy yourself’. And that’s exactly what I did.”

The athlete recalls being ‘pretty emotional after the race’ adding ‘ninth [place] is amazing against the best guys in the world’.

“I don’t think it was was so much to do with ninth that I was emotional you know, it was, as an athlete you have doubts all the time you have a lot of ups and downs but this last three years has been really tough on me [because of my achilles heel],” he said.

Mislawchuk came in ninth. (YouTube/ The Canadian Press)

Reflecting on the end of the race – Mislawchuk clearly having pushed himself over the limit given the amount of times he threw up, he joked: “Yeah there’s nothing left, if you’ve seen the finish line, there’s nothing left for me to give.”

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He resolved: “I think that’s what I’m happy about, you know? I pushed myself and throughout the race so many times when I started hurting i just said 20 more seconds you know just stay on for 20 more seconds and I did that too many times to count.

“[…] It can get you a long way.”

The most bizarre, discontinued Olympic sports

Painting

Back in the day, the Olympics dished out medals for art too, with events including painting and sculpture, as well as music, architecture and even literature.

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Making its debut all the way back at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm and continuing until the 1948 London games, juries awarded competitors a total of 151 medals for artistic projects inspired by sport.

Tug of War

Bet you didn’t think this playground classic was once part of the Olympics, did you?

Well, it turns out not only was the sport popular, but it stirred up a lot of drama too – with accusations of foul play flying around at the 1908 Olympics in London, with Team USA accusing Team GB of cheating due to their ‘illegal’ heavy footwear.

A mainstay for around five Olympic games from 1900 to 1920, Tug of War enthusiasts have even campaigned for organisers to reintroduce the retired sport back into the Games.

Hot Air Balloon Racing

Launching at the 1900 Olympics, hot air balloon drivers would compete in races scoring how far they could travel, altitude reached, ability to land within the correct coordinates and – to top it all off – who got the best photo from the balloon.

The sport ended up being canned after a ban on motorised sports was brought in.

Live Pigeon Shooting

Also making its debut at the 1900 Olympics, the event was pretty self explanatory – a load of pigeons were released into the air as the competitor tried to shoot as many as possible. Grim.

The event only appeared at the Games once, and all in all, it’s estimated that Olympic hopefuls killed around 300 pigeons.

Pistol Duelling

It doesn’t take much guessing as to why this event was scrapped, but back in 1906, people clearly didn’t bat an eyelid at competitors waving pistols around and shooting at each other.

It began with competitors shooting at dummies, but two years later organisers decided to shake things up and have them shoot at each other with wax bullets. Ouch.

1908 would be the last time the sport was included in the Olympics, so I’m guessing they quickly realised it was a bad idea – wax bullets or not.